It is said your day is wasted if you don't learn something

Today I learnt a little about praying mantises.

 Sometimes they visit our garden and hang around on the shade cloth blind that keeps hot sun off the back of our house.  This one was bright green but you can't tell that because of the sun glare, and was several inches long.

This morning this large brown girl - for it is a female - was making her ootheca, or egg capsule.....we know what she was up to a week or so ago, don't we!

 This afternoon she was gone and had left this ootheca behind on the post; the colour could be best described as pea soup green and it's a bit over one inch long, or 2.54 cms if you prefer.

When all those new critters hatch we will have lots of new friends here at the Chateau des Wombats.  If they were cute little things I might keep one as a pet, but I don't do insects.  Fur, yes.  Feathers, maybe.  Fins and scales, definitely not.......we're getting further away from warm and fuzzy here, folks.  I only do warm and fuzzy.

However - my day wasn't wasted, was it?

Last week's promised rain didn't happen.  We had a few spots, a bit of a shower, but it was nothing to get excited about.  So we didn't.  Right now it's trying hard to rain, fingers crossed that it does, as this month is on track to be the one of the driest Februaries ever since records were kept.  That's not the sort of record we wish to set.

Work on Euan's quilt is proceeding, with only eight blocks to be quilted before the border is tackled.  It will have to wait for a little while; this coming Saturday is quilt group and I am organising what to take, and making sure my little vintage Singer Featherweight is oiled and working (My Lovely New Bernina is set up for free-motion quilting, and it's staying that way until Euan's quilt is done) as the plan is to work on making quilts for the local Ronald Macdonald House.  It always takes so long to pack up 'stuff' for a day's sewing, doesn't it?  Then when you get there and start to set up there is always something which has been forgotten, which is why I need to prepare in advance.

Next week we will be away for a few days, we will be making our annual pilgrimage to the Big Smoke to see our financial bloke to make sure we can afford to keep living until Christmas, and to catch up with friends, and to do a little shopping for things which just aren't available here - good quality dark chocolate from a proper chocolate shop, perhaps a CD because my kind of music isn't available here in the Small Smoke, a visit to a big huge book shop - we have a book shop here, but it's not big - maybe even take in an exhibition.  It's going to be a busy few days, isn't it?

Then on Friday we will drive back home, and no doubt breathe a sigh of relief as we leave the Big Smoke behind until the next time.  I lived there for forty years, but now when we visit I find it suffocating.  So many people, so much traffic, so much noise.......

"The girl who has so educated and regulated her intellect, her tastes, her emotions and moral sense, as to be able to discern the true from the false, will be ready for the faithful performance of whatever work in life is alloted to her; while she who is allowed to grow up ignorant, idle, vain, frivolous, will find herself fitted for no state of existence, and in after years, with feelings of remorse and despair over a wasted life, may cast reproach upon those in whose trust was reposed her early education."

That sounds to me like a fancy way of saying girls should learn interesting things - for example, studying about praying mantises.

Enjoy your days!

Waiting for the pitter patter

Not of tiny feet, but of raindrops - today's forecast is for showers later today, and for rain tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that it happens.  So far this month we have not had one drop of rain so there is a lot of catching up to be done.

Some of the world is buried under tons of snow right now, we'll send you some of our sun and heat if you like......we have more than enough to spare!

However it appears that summer is losing its grip because we are noticing changes in some of the trees hereabouts; leaves are losing their bright green colour and looking faded, while some are turning yellow and bronze already.  Our neighbour said it's because of the ongoing drought, but I like to think it's because summer is on the way out.

Just looking at these photos makes me feel cooler.

 Canada in autumn is beautiful.

We don't get the same glorious colours, but summer's green still makes way for light gold, red and bronze.....there is more colour here in the change of seasons than when we lived in the Big Smoke.

Last week the medical centre rang to tell me that I don't need to worry, the 'thing' on my forehead is a solar keratosis not deadly skin cancer, so my face won't fall off.  It's good that I don't need to panic......wouldn't want to waste a good panic, would we?

Also last week I managed to scald my stomach when my hand slipped on the kettle handle while pouring boiling water into the kitchen sink, and water splashed onto the edge of the sink and onto me.  Oh dear, it did hurt.  I reckon one of the most painful ways to be injured is by burning or scalding.  Way back when I was a little tacker I pulled a pan of boiling milk off the stove and onto me.  The scars are there to this day, inside my right arm and elbow and on the outside of my right breast.  I'm really glad I have no memory of it, because it must have been horrendously painful.

Work is continuing on Euan's quilt, I tried to get a picture but the bright colours make it hard to photograph indoors - every block looks very orange, even if there is no orange in it.  So take my word for it, progress is continuing and eventually it will be finished.

Then a Big Decision will need to be made, about which of many projects to work on next.

Recently we went for a Nice Sunday Drive on a Friday to Nundle to order a shade for the light in our bedroom.  The current shade was in place when we moved in, and it's not lovely.  We will be glad to get rid of it, and replace it with a glass shade from these glass artists, whose work is gorgeous.

We've been in this house now for nearly five years, and are still finding things we would like to change.  Last year we had the fussy frilly curtains, valances and pink blinds taken away from the kitchen and the living area next to it;  they were replaced by cream blinds and no curtains, so much neater and less cluttered.

"A douche or hip bath may be taken every morning, with the temperature of the water suited to the endurance of the individual.  In summer a sponge bath may be taken upon retiring.  Once a week a warm bath, at from ninety to one hundred degrees, may be taken, with plenty of soap, in order to thoroughly cleanse the pores of the skin.  Rough towels should be vigorously used after these baths, not only to remove the impurities of the skin but for the beneficial friction which will send a glow over the whole body.  The hair glove or fleshbrush may be used to advantage in the bath before the towel is applied."

It seems funny to us these days that people once needed to be reminded to bathe daily, doesn't it?  The thinking, so I have read, was that one bathed once a week whether one needed it or not.....or perhaps it was once a month.  Could even have been once a year......now there's a scary thought.....

Enjoy your days!

Finally......quilting has started!

Yesterday the sewing room was re-organised, small tables were moved to better positions to support the weight, and today the first quilting stitches were taken on Euan's quilt.

 It's quite bright.......that orange sashing and border is only one inch wide, so I am quilting a wavy line down the middle using the walking foot.  My first thought was something more adventurous but it is for a baby, so the quilting doesn't need to be worthy of taking first prize in an international show.

As promised, here are some of the flowers and buds on one of our pretty correa plants.

It's not very big yet, so I hope you appreciate that I had to get down on hands and knees to take this.  Getting down is still not too bad, but getting up again is a different story.........

On Tuesday I had a minor medical procedure.  For some time now there has been a blemish right smack dab in the middle of my forehead; it has been frozen/burnt off twice but still comes back, so I made an appointment to have it seen to.  The doctor didn't think it is anything ominous but as Australia has the highest rate of melanoma and other skin cancers in the world, I felt it was worth checking.  I almost wish I hadn't, now.......first there was an injection at the edge of the blemish, then a couple of minutes later another one nearby.....I don't like injections at the best of times, and having to have two - TWO! - in my forehead was a bit much......then he took two scrapings of skin to be sent for biopsy, one for each injection, because there were two patches of scaly skin.....then the nurse slapped on a large white dressing, and I was given instructions on how to care for the wound.  The dressing looked like a headlight, a beacon shining forth from my head, but as the instructions were to soak it off in the shower the following morning the indignity of wearing it was only for one day.  Then there was the delight of having a scabby forehead that looked as though I had taken on someone bigger and stronger than myself, and lost.......but it is healing nicely now, although a small bruise next to the wound will, I suspect, take a little longer to go away.

If the biopsies don't show a problem then nothing more needs to be done, but if there is cause for concern I will be notified about a follow-up visit.  No news yet, so fingers crossed!

Like many Australians my ancestry is from the British Isles, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and like many Aussies I have skin which would be better off in a milder climate away from our harsh sun.  However I was born here, my parents were born here, two of my four grandparents were born here, some of my great-grandparents were born here, great-great-grandparents too......my family roots in this country go back to at least 1800.  Like many people of my generation we were sent outside to play, we wore no hat, no sunscreen, no shirt - skin cancer hadn't been invented then, obviously.  I can recall being quite badly burnt more than once in my life, and people of my generation are now paying the price for that neglect.

"To remove freckles.
A good freckle lotion is made of honey, one ounce, mixed with one pint of luke-warm water.  Apply when cold."

Ladies in 1885 were really concerned about having freckled skin.  Apparently the reason was, a woman who wasn't a lady might spend time outside, gardening, working in the fields, hanging out washing.....but a true lady didn't do those things.  She stayed inside to preserve her complexion, and if she needed to venture forth she wore a hat, long sleeves, gloves, and kept a parasol over her head at all times.  The emergence of a freckle would have been greeted with horror.

Enjoy your days!